Fishing - Trout season kicks off

The 2026-2027 Tasmanian Brown Trout season kicked off last Saturday morning, and for the most part, anglers have been reporting encouraging results.

Some solid sea-run and resident trout were landed from our estuary-based rivers, and some aggressive brown and rainbow trout were also caught up the lakes.

Anglers targeting Great Lake mentioned it was quiet and cold, but others who hit the Brady's Chain reported catching fish trolling/spinning and bait fishing with worms, wattle grubs, and Power Bait.

Lake Echo fished well, with some good conditioned brown trout also caught spinning, trolling, and bait fishing.

Bronte Lagoon was and is always popular, but as usual this water still gave up some cracking brown trout to lure anglers as did Lake Leake and Toom's Lake.

Four Springs Lake, Talbots Lagoon, Pet Dam, Curries River Reservoir and the Derwent River were other waters mentioned more than others.
Before the new season's start, the Inland Fisheries Service released updated details on their tagged trout promotion.

Forty-five yellow-tagged trout are now out there for anglers to catch, including 37 brown trout and 8 rainbow trout, worth a total of $245,000.

The first tagged trout caught from Great Lake is still worth a whopping $25,000, with the remaining tagged trout worth $5,000 each.

To be eligible for the cash, tagged trout must be caught by a holder of a valid/current Tasmanian inland angling licence, and trout must be caught during the promotion period, which ends on the 31st of July 2027.

The tags in the trout are yellow, and if you're lucky enough to catch one, contact the Inland Fisheries Service on 1300 463 474 between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday, or email infish@ifs.tas.gov.au, and provide your name, contact details, tag number, waterway and location the fish was caught and overall length.

Waters that hold tagged trout are Arthurs Lake(3 brown), Brady's Lake(2 brown and 3 rainbow), Craigbourne Lake( 4 rainbow), Curries River Reservoir( 1 rainbow), Great Lake(4 brown) Huntsman Lake(3 brown), Lake Burbury (6 brown), Lake Leake (2 brown), Lake Mackintosh (4 brown) Lake Rowallan(4 brown) Lake Sorell(4 brown) Derwent River(3 brown) and South Riana Lake (2 brown).
The New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association held their first competition of the 2026-27 season over opening weekend.

This year saw the NNLAA and Bridgewater Anglers Club reunite to fish against each other for the "heaviest trout", which was previously an annual opening day competition, last held in 2010.

Each club still ran their own individual competitions, and for the NNLAA, 40 trout were weighed in, weighing 25.904 kg with an average weight of .647 kg.

BLAC anglers weighed in 10 trout weighing 5.451 kg, which didn't include some fish caught from Saturday.

NNLAA angler Adrian Slater started the season well, landing the heaviest trout for the NNLAA and overall with a cracker sea runner weighing 1.788 kg.

Adrian will remember that fish for a while too after it busted him off and he recaught it again for the win.

I had the next best 3 trout, which were caught in a short bite window on Saturday, with my best weighing 1.693kg cleaned.

I had another at 1.632kg and another at 1.356kg, and Marty Evans had another good one at 1.315 kg and 1.021 kg, and Kirsty Chalmers another at 1.043kg.

Bridgewater anglers to get nice trout were Alistair Duggan .853 kg, and Kevin Nettlefold .813 kg, .776kg, and .591kg, and Kevin Johns .520 kg and Shawn Johns .451kg.
For the juniors, Jayden Slater, like his dad, started the new season well, taking out the junior heaviest trout award overall and for the NNLAA.

Jayden's nice sea runner weighed 1.061kg, with Darcy Robertson next best with a good fish weighing 0.702 kg and Mason Hutchinson also another at 0.681 kg.

Special mention to juniors Laurie and Vincent McMaster and Lee Robertson for also landing nice trout.

Glenn Duggan won the average weight award with a fish weighing 0.619 kg, and Darcy Robertson and I both won runners-up awards.

With Upper Derwent catchments spilling up until late in the week, flow from Meadowbank Dam only slowed during Saturday, which saw conditions improve and some good trout come on the bite.

Most of the better fish were healthy and hungry fresh silver sea runners, which is encouraging as we push into a great time to be fishing.

The NNLAA's next competition is the popular Derwent River Interclub Challenge (STLAA Invitation, which also now involves Northern angling clubs) from Friday, August 28 to Sunday, August 30.
Tip Of The Week- The Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) have advised that public access to Pioneer Lake in North East Tasmania has been restored following the successful completion of the Pioneer Dam decommissioning project.

550 Rainbow Trout were released into the lake in the lead-up to the new season.
Send in your fishing reports, pics and tips to valleyfishes@gmail.com
Tight Lines until next week.